Holidaymakers travelling with British Airways at Heathrow faced major disruption on Wednesday after the airline was hit with a “technical issue”.
Dozens of flights due to leave Heathrow Terminal 5 between 1pm and 6pm on Wednesday were cancelled or departed late.
The airline apologised to customers who were inconvenienced by the problem, saying it had affected its operation for “a short time”.
Reports suggested the website for British Airways had an error where it said online check ins “can’t be completed right now” because the airline can’t “verify your health documentation”.
The technical difficulty only had an impact on those travelling via Heathrow.
In a tweet British Airways later confirmed the issue had been resolved and it was working to help passengers whose journeys had been disrupted.
Among the customers taking to social media to complain was broadcaster Andrew Neil, who tweeted: “The technical shambles @British_Airways just gets worse and worse. Tonight they cancelled my flight just three hours before takeoff. They cancelled so many flights this evening that hotels around Heathrow are jam-packed.”
Neil added: “So far CEO Sean Doyle’s tenure has been a disaster.”
The technical shambles @British_Airways just gets worse and worse. Tonight they cancelled my flight just three hours before takeoff. They cancelled so many flights this evening that hotels around Heathrow are jam-packed. So far CEO Sean Doyle’s tenure has been a disaster.
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) March 30, 2022
Another person said: “Been stuck at Heathrow for 2.5 hours unable to check in with @British_Airways due to them experiencing a “global IT system failure”… no one seems to have answers or know what’s going on #BritishAirways.”
Others wrote: “Been sitting on the plane at Heathrow now almost the same length of time as the flight from Prague to London. Wouldn’t mind but I would love to stretch my legs a bit. #BritishAirways.”
“We are stuck in Barcelona on BA407. Were just about to take off but final payload info not received by flight deck due to IT issue at Heathrow. Now sitting waiting for more information. #BritishAirways.”
Big Jet TV, who live streamed from the airport runway during Storm Eunice, tweeted: “We’re live at Heathrow and hearing British Airways IT systems are down.”
In a statement on Wednesday, a British Airways spokesman said: “We experienced a technical issue for a short time this afternoon which affected our operation at Heathrow Terminal 5.
“This has now been resolved and we’re resuming flight operations.
“We’ve apologised to those customers who have been inconvenienced.”
The issue is the latest to beset the airline in recent months.
In late February, the airline was forced to cancel all short-haul flights from Heathrow for several hours due to a hardware problem.
Passengers described the incident as “absolute chaos” as it caused flight delays, with passengers stuck on planes after landing at the airport and baggage piling up.
It led to hundreds queuing outside Heathrow’s Terminal 5 with staff only letting passengers into the building an hour before their flight, due to the backlog.
The airline apologised at the time for the issue.
